The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė)) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).
Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).
In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 94:10:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“Can He who instructs human races not be able to punish?
Can He who teaches a person lack wisdom?” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“He controls the nations.
Won’t He also punish you?
He is the one who teaches all people
What! Is there anything He does not know?” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“He who disciplines the nations, will- he not -punish?
He who teaches the people, does- he not -know?” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Laarim:
“He punishes the nations, would he not punish you also?
He teaches all matters,
would he not know the matters you are doing?” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Ambaye anayakemea makabila yote, je, hawezi kuwadhibu?
Ambaye anawafundisha watu, je, hana na akili?” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“He also scolds the leaders of other nations;
so do you think that he will not punish you?
He is the one who knows everything;
so why do you think that he does not know what you do?” (Source: Translation for Translators)
In verse 10a the two verbs are practically synonymous; both mean “to discipline, admonish, rebuke, reprove” and occur in parallel lines in 6.1a-b; 38.1a-b (see also 39.11). The argument is as follows: the people whom the psalmist is accusing admit that Yahweh rebukes the pagan nations (the Hebrew term used in 2.1); will he not surely punish others as well, including the Israelite leaders themselves? So Good News Translation “punish them” (also An American Translation, New English Bible) is inadequate, since “them” here may be taken to refer to “the nations” in the same line, when it should refer to the wicked Israelite leaders (see Good News Translation footnote). In the context it may be better to translate “He rebukes the nations–won’t he punish our wicked leaders?” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “He who disciplines all people, should he not also surely be able to punish you?”
The next line (verse 10b) is in Hebrew simply “he who teaches people knowledge.” An American Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, and New American Bible connect it with the preceding line as a further description of God (“He who instructs man in knowledge”); Revised Standard Version, Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible connect it with the following line. But others, like Good News Translation, assume that there is an ellipsis of “hasn’t he any knowledge?” (parallel with verses 9a-b, 10a) and so translate the line as a complete rhetorical question (so Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New English Bible, Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, and Dahood). Translators may wish to do the same.
The thought of verse 11 finds a parallel in 39.5c; here the psalmist is talking about human thoughts, human reasoning. Most translations take they are but a breath (hebel; see 78.33) to refer to thoughts, despite the fact that in Hebrew “thoughts” is feminine and the pronoun “they” is masculine. But the context seems to require that it is human reasoning which God considers to be “vapid” (Dahood), “futile” (New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version); it is not likely that here the focus is on human mortality. If the translator interprets line b to refer to human thoughts, in some languages a simile can be used to denote their insubstantial existence; for example, “he knows their thoughts are like smoke that vanishes” or “… like clouds that pass by.”
Verse 11 is quoted in 1 Corinthians 3.20 as it appears in the Septuagint, except that instead of “people” in the psalm, the word “the wise (people)” is used by Paul.
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a third person singular and plural pronoun (“he,” “she,” “it” and their various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. While it’s not uncommon to avoid pronouns altogether in Japanese, there are is a range of third person pronouns that can be used. In these verses a number of them are used that pay particularly much respect to the referred person (or, in fact, God, as in Exodus 15:2), including kono kata (この方), sono kata (その方), and ano kata (あの方), meaning “this person,” “that person,” and “that person over there.”
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